Cloud into the Heavens has told us in his holy Word which shall not pass away though this World shall that at the end of it the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father That they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead shall be equal with the Angels That if our earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God a Divine Frame an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens That there is a natural and a spiritual Body and that as we have born the image of the earthy we Christians shall also bear the image of the heavenly Adam All this is further confirmed to us by the Oeconomy of the Gospel That sets forth Christ as the Person who on Earth was transfigured in so admirable a manner that his Face did shine as the Sun and his very Rayment was white as the Light who bought both Body and Soul with an incorruptible price who died and rose again That he might be Lord both of the dead and living who rose as a publick person as the Head of his Church in order to the Resurrection of the members of it who rising from the Dead became the first Fruits of them that slept who both to accommodate himself to these Regions and to prove beyond contradiction that it was he himself and not a Spectre Took again his body with flesh bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man's nature and ascended through the starry Heavens into a Region still more pure and had that body made Coelestial and still lives in that most heavenly form and will come again and receive his true Disciples into that thrice happy Ierusalem where he now is and will change their vile bodies and fashion them like to his own glorious body not abolishing the substance of them but exalting the meanness and earthliness of their present frame into Coelestial agility and lustre And indeed Philosophy such as is not vain though much is especially when it refines upon sacred Mysteries does plainly shew us that a heavenly body is only fit for a heavenly Region That a pure body is not in its element unless it lives and moves in pure aether Upon which account I suppose Saint Paul himself observes that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God above neither doth corruption inherit incorruption It must be changed into a body that cannot corrupt or die if it is to subsist most happily for ever in an heavenly place and such is the place prepared for the Children of the Resurrection All this being considered it becomes us not to be faithless but believe that this mortal shall put on immortality For it is full out as absurd to refuse to believe when there is a reason for our Faith as to believe with a forward credulity when there is none The consequence of this Belief is very comfortable for great and many are the advantages derived to Christians by being cloth'd with a Coelestial Body and that is the 2 d. Head which I proposed to discourse of The very nature of the thing speaks aloud the benefit which will accrue to them by the renovation of this Body There is scarce a comparison to be admitted betwixt this earthly body and that which shall be at the Ascension of Christians They differ more than the least and dimmest Star and the brightest and greatest Luminary in the Firmament of Heaven Of this St. Paul takes notice in the fortieth verse of this Chapter and those which follow it saying There are Coelestal bodies and bodies Terrestrial but the glory of the Coelestal is one and the glory of the Terrestrial is another There is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another Star in glory So also is the Resurrection of the Dead It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory It is sown in weakness it is raised in power It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body Happy are the people who are in such a Case But to descend to a more special consideration of this matter The happiness derived from the change of a natural to a spiritual body consisteth in a deliverance 1. From the grossness of the former as it is a body of this flesh and blood 2 dly From the disorderly motions of it as it is a corruptible body 3 dly From the perishing nature decay and fall of it as it is both a corruptible and mortal body The first advantage which Christians obtain by changing an earthly for an heavenly body is deliverance from the grosness of the former as it is a body of this flesh and blood And this is a very valuable priviledge upon three Accounts 1st Vpon the account of natural case 2dly Of Divine Contemplation 3dly Of Piety and Devotion 1 st Christians have a priviledge by being freed from the grosness of this body upon the account of ease which is so naturally desired For as the Book of Solomon speaks agreeable to its title the corruptible body presseth down the Soul And in that load and heaviness there is little comfort Seneca says of the body that it is the weight and pain of the mind and a kind of Bond round about its Liberty Our Office for the Burial of the Dead calls it the burthen of the Flesh. St. Paul also makes this acknowledgement in 2 Cor. 5. 4. we who are in this Tabernacle do groan groan earnestly v. 2. being burdened By this great change that which was formerly a heavy and uneasie weight becomes as wings and as the Antients speak a Coelestial Chariot to the Soul 2 ly Another priviledge enjoy'd by Christians upon deliverance from the grosness of this body is freedom from a mighty impediment of Divine Contemplation The ScripScripture teacheth us That this visible World shall be renew'd The Heavens and the Earth which now are shall Perish not in their Being but with reference to their present Frame which as it is is a glorious Structure but He who made all things can and will Build it better This Earth and these Heavens shall be folded up as is a Vesture and be marvellously changed Upon which there shall be new Heavens and a new Earth That Phrase is in some Places metaphorically used in setting forth a New and Excellent State of the Church But in St. Peter it is to be literally understood of a New Frame of Nature after the Old reserved unto Fire against the Day of Iudgment shall be by such means dissolved as the Earth was once overflow'd by Water But the Change in Noah's time was from better to worse this will be from worse to much much better Doubtless it will be a glorious World
A SERMON CONCERNING The Coelestial Body of a Christian After the Resurrection Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL April 8. 1694. Being EASTER-DAY By the Right Reverend Father in GOD THOMAS Lord Bishop of Lincoln Published by their Majesties Special Command LONDON London Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV A SERMON Preached before the KING and QUEEN 1 CORINTH XV. 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality THIS is part of a very remarkable Discourse of St. Paul's and indeed all his are such In it he treats of the great Article by which our holy Religion stands or falls The Resurrection of Christ as likewise of that of Christian Men. For here he does not speak of the entire Argument but of the Resurrection to life Now after having prov'd by several convincing Reasons that Christ is risen and that those who are Christ's shall rise also in God's due time he proceeds to the discovery of a mysterious Truth not hitherto unfolded to the Corinthians This holy Sâ—cret consisteth of two Branches The first is the wonderful change which shall of a sudden be made in the Bodies of those true Christians who shall be found alive at that time when Christ shall come to judge that world which with such insolence and ingratitude set him at nought The Apostle shews that there shall then be no other separation of the Souls of the Iust from their respective Bodies than what the Almighty power of God shall make by the transmutation of those Bodies from a gross to a heavenly frame The second is the like glorious alteration which shall be made at the last in the Boâ—es of those who having slept in Christ shall be raised again at that day Behold saith he I shew you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall be changed In a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump for the Trumpet shall found some awakening Power shall go before the Heavenly King when he descendeth with his Host of Angels and the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality That which I have to say at present upon these words may be reduced to four Heads 1. The grounds of the Belief of a Christian concerning this change of a corruptible and mortal into an incorruptible and immortal Body 2. The many and great advantages which will accrue to those whose bodies shall be at last in this extraordinary manner transfigured 3. The means without which no man shall attain this Blessed End 4. An Exhortation to the conscientious use of the means by which we may with certainty arrive at this Change which will be so very much every way for the better that whensoever we shall leave these earthly Tabernacles in which we shall dwell but a few days and peradventure whilst those last incommodiously enough we may by the grace of God and the ministration of his holy Angels be received into everlasting habitations 1. I begin with the grounds upon which we believe that the Body shall be raised and made Caelestial in the Heavens and corrupt no more and dye no more That the Body is mortal is an Article in every mans Creed though many live as if they had not spent a thought about dying and upon the account which after death must be made by them That the Body shall rise was a Doctrine which the Primitive Christians spake of with such great assurance that as the Heathen in Minutius Felix observes a man that heard them would almost think they themselves were already risen And tho the conceit of Origen about a new Caelestial body instead of the glorified frame of the old one at least of the ideal rudiments of it had been by his Followers entertained yet they agreed with other Christians in the point of a heavenly Tabernacle Nevertheless all men in all Ages have not had a Faith equal with theirs but some especially in ours so over-run with Scepticism have doubted concerning the Resurrection and further Change of this Body such things entring with difficulty into our imaginations of which no Instance has been seen by us Notwithstanding which we have reason to believe this Change though none have come out of their Graves to shew us it And here I appeal to all sensible men whether That God who is the Author of Motion by which all Alterations in bodies are made who brought this goodly Frame of the World out of an heap of indigested Matter who formed the Body of Adam out of the Dust who has so framed Nature that a spring of Vegetables should succeed their death in Winter who quickens dying Seeds into beautiful Stems and Flowers and Fruit who caused even the dry rod of Aaron to bud and blossom and bring forth Almonds who has given skill and power to men by Fire and other natural Causes to open and refine the grossest bodies in whose Book saith David were all our members written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them who is pleased frequently to raise the Sick to Health and Strength and Vigour after they had suffer'd a long and tedious languishment in which low Estate their Flesh and their Spirits were wasted and their Bones stood as it were staring upon them I appeal I say to all men of sound common sense whether that God who hath done these great things is not able to put together the parts of an humane body which he made contriv'd and formerly joyn'd and to advance the frame of it from grossness to purity To think he is not is next to no thinking at all and it is to reproach God's Power and Knowledge and Wisdom which is a perilous as well as an injudicious and irreverend practice How God will effect the change of this Body when he shall make it Coelestial I pretend not to explain No man I believe can minutely tell how a grain of Mustardseed grows up into a Tree or arborescent Plant. It is true we cannot properly call that part of this Doctrine which is revealed any longer a Mystery But there is something of it kept secret still God hath not been pleased fully to discover the methods of his working this wonderful effect It may suffice in this Doctrine of Grace as in those of time and place and rest and motion in Nature that we know enough for our present use though we know not all and that we are sure of the thing it self though we cannot comprehend the manner of it It is more than barely credible it is certain That God who can do all this will at last do it because he has said he will He who on earth caused the Faces of Moses and Saint Stephen to shine who translated Elias in the Chariot of a bright and glorious
which God will raise out of the Ruins of this It is a World expected as a wonderful Blessing from the Promise of God Now in this World the Earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things and it is from the grossness of the Organs of it that we think so little and discern so little of the Beauty of Nature and Providence And the more the Eye is help'd by Art the more it raiseth Admiration in him who considers the Works of God It letteth in a New World of Creatures and an infinite agreeable Variety of Motions Figures and Contextures which we discern nothing of by our naked Sight And in such Contemplation there is more true and useful Pleasure than in all the Brutalities in which Sensual Men consume their Time Substance and Health and waste their Conscience too Now it will be necessary for the Body to be Coelestial that it may be capable of considering those extraordinary Stamps and Characters of the Divine Power and Wisdom which will be found upon a Coelestial and Incorruptible World the observing of which will I believe be one of those Exercises in which the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect shall be most happily employ'd For if these Heavens declare the Glory and Handy-work of God those will much more do so and a Saint cannot be such if he delights not in that Manifestation 3 dly Another Privilege arising from our Deliverance from the grossness of this Body is the removal of a great hindrance of Piety and Devotion It cannot but be an extreme Mortification to those who would lift up their Hearts to God and have their Conversation in Heaven to feel such a pressure and dulness upon their Spirits as damps and deadens them in their Holy Admirations Praises and Prayers This especially will be an extraordinary Grief to them when they set themselves with all their Heart and Soul and Might to answer with the Degrees of their Devotion the most solemn Occasions of Publick Worship such as those of this Day on which all that is within us should bless the Name of God who hath begotten us again to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Iesus from the Dead But when the Body is not Restive and the Spirits move as Handmaids to the Soul then even here on Earth it is ravish'd with Religious Joy The second Advantage which Christians obtain by changing an Earthly for an Heavenly Body is Deliverance from the disorderly Motions to which this Body is liable as it is a Corruptible Body whether the Spring of them be within or from without and upon which account it may be called as it is in the Book of Wisdom a Body that is subject unto Sin Here frequently Sickness and violent Torture render Life not worthy the Name of Life and provoke the Patients to think sometimes that Death moves very slowly towards them Here it many times happens that one corrupt Member must be cut off for the Preservation of the rest though with certain Pain and uncertain Hope In this Body the Warmth which is subservient to Wit and Elocution carries frequently with it a mixture of Extravagance and Indiscretion How often does this Corruptible Frame bring such Decays upon the Memory that all things are almost forgotten even Injuries themselves tho of this sort of Oblivion we have no reason to complain What is more common to Man than the raging and swelling of unruly Passions and Affections which are troublesom both to the Person so highly moved and to the World to which he gives Disturbance How often do unreasonable Appetites and Inclinations become so impetuous and war with such force against the Soul in Men who are not yet grown up into strong Habits of Grace that the Good which they would do that they do not and the Evil which they would not do that they do How often do Flesh and Blood prejudice the Understanding by Enthusiastick Heat which represents to it Dreams and strong Delusions and flashes of Madness in the Fancy as immediate Illuminations from God How frequently does it form a dark Cloud of Melancholy in the Imagination and fashion that Cloud into all the Shapes of Terror and Affrightment in good though scrupulous Men Upon this account they cry out in their haste and in the anguish of their Souls Will the Lord cast off for ever and will He be favourable no more Is his Mercy clean gone for ever Doth his Promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious Hath he in Anger shut up his tender Mercies These through the fumes of the Blood rather than the guilt of the Conscience are for a season in this Life of all others the most miserable for such a troubled Spirit who can bear Nevertheless upon the whole their Condition is much safer and better than theirs who sport with their Misfortunes and mock at their Griefs and at the same time wallow in Sin without any Reflexion upon either the Criminalness or the Peril of their own Sensuality For these latter at the dreadful Day shall have their Bodies made the most Dishonourable and Unprofitable of all Vessels whilst those of the former shall be chang'd into Vessels of the highest Honour and the greatest Use that Humâ—ne Nature is capable of and such they shall remain for ever And that is The third sort of Advantage which those who are Christ's will be happy in that is to say a freedom from the perishing nature decay and fall of this Body as a corruptible mortal Body for this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal must put on Immortality There are two things which all Men naturally desire to know an end of their Sufferings and to have no end of their Happiness The way to the Accomplishment of these Desires is not shewn in the Schools of Zeno or Plato It is confess'd there was taught by them a celebrated but false Doctrine of Restitution of the World This they would have to be brought to pass in the Revolution of a certain Period of Time in such sort that all things should come about again and be as they had been before for a like quantity of Duration and so in Vicissitudes for ever From whence it would follow that this Corruptible Body after it had put on Incorruption for a season should become corruptible again and mortal again But in the School of Christ we learn a Proposition which is most Confortable as well as most True to wit that after the Resurrection Ascension and glorious Change of this Body all Grossness all disorderly Motion all Pain and Trouble shall cease but of the Felicity of the Christian Man's Soul dwelling in it there shall be no End The Apostle assures us That Death their last Enemy shall it self be then destroy'd For the Lord Jesus shall descend from Heaven with a Shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ